At a White House press briefing for members of new media on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about small businesses.
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00:00power as well. You're welcome. Sure.
00:02Hi, Teresa. I'm with Independent Women and WMAL.
00:06Oh, great.
00:06We love working with the administration to really tout policies that work for families and work for small businesses in this country.
00:12Next week is Small Business Week, and I know that the SBA will be, you know, championing all the small businesses, the millions in this country, almost half of which are women-owned.
00:21But I'd love to find out what the president feels about independent contractors who are not typical W-2 employees, not nine-to-five workers, but who hang their own shingle.
00:30You know, they're 1099 workers.
00:32We saw the Biden administration really try to crack down on that small business entrepreneurial spirit,
00:37and we're hopeful that the administration would overturn what the Biden administration did and maybe even work with Congress to pass some lasting changes,
00:45codify some lasting changes that would protect, you know, your ability to be self-employed, your ability to be a small business owner.
00:52Well, the president is a businessman at heart himself, right?
00:55He's a real estate developer, and I think that's a large reason the American people elected him the first time and the second time because they trusted him.
01:05And small businesses are the backbone of our American economy.
01:08I come from a small business family myself, and the president knows what small business families need and independent contractors need, entrepreneurs need.
01:16You need less government in the way.
01:18You need less regulation.
01:19You need low energy costs, low taxes, a low cost of living, a low cost of goods.
01:24And that's exactly what the president is focused on doing, while simultaneously, effectively leveraging tariffs to protect our middle class and our working class and our manufacturing base.
01:36Look at our auto industry.
01:37Think about Michigan.
01:38It used to be the heartland of the auto industry of the world.
01:42It was the auto capital of the world.
01:45And unfortunately, so many of those jobs have gone overseas.
01:48And so the president wants to protect good-paying jobs here at home and unleash the might of our economy for small business owners.
01:55And that includes removing red tape and cutting taxes.
01:59And as for independent contractors and what the president would hope to do with Congress, we'll definitely check back in on that and get you an answer because it's an important question.
02:08Remember, you have to pay for change.